David Krejci is one of the best, if not the best, playmaker for Boston Bruins. No other Bruins player passes or skates with the puck better than he does. There is no question that the 26-year-old Czech is a very talented player, but there are plenty of questions about his consistency. Krejci has the talent to put up 80 points season after season, but there are stretches in every season where he doesn’t play at the level he is capable of playing. There are some nights where he is all over the ice and some nights you don’t even know he is out there.

Every talented player will go through stretches of a season without putting up any points, put Krejci has had many lackluster stretches over the years:

Year

GP

Goals

Assists

Points

+/-

Bad stretches, Consecutive GP (+/-)

07-08

56

6

21

27

-3

8 (-3), 5 (0), 4 (-1), 7 (+1)

08-09

82

22

51

73

+37

5 (0), 15 (5 PTS, +/- of 0), 4 (-1)

09-10

79

17

35

52

+8

4 (-2), 6 (0), 6 (-2), 4 (0), 15 (5 PTS, +/- of -5)

10-11

75

13

49

62

+23

4 (-4), 5 (-2)

11-12

79

23

39

62

-5

6 (-5), 5 (-1), 7 (-6), 15 (3 PTS, +/- of -8)

Krejci has had some terrible stretches in his five seasons with the Bruins, including a stretch in February of last year when he only registered two goals. But granted, that was right after losing Nathan Horton, who was having a career year, for the rest of the season with his second concussion in less than a year.

On the other hand, Krejci has a knack for stepping up his play in big games. Here are his playoff numbers:

Year

GP

Goals

Assists

Points

+/-

07-08

7

1

4

5

+1

08-09

11

2

6

8

+6

09-10

9

4

4

8

+3

10-11

25

12

11

23

+8

11-12

7

1

2

3

0

A 48-game season, where every game matters more than it would in an 82-game season, could lead to Krejci bringing his A-game every night. With talented wingers on each side (Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton) again this season, he has the ammunition to have a great season. On Saturday night in the home opener against The New York Rangers, Krejci got an assist on Lucic’s rebound goal and almost scored one of his own, but Henrik Lundqvist made a tremendous save.

But if Krejci performs poorly, expect the “Bobby Ryan for Krejci” trade talks to start flying around him like they did last summer.